Play
No.8, Alan Bennett's "Forty Years On" was first broadcast by the BBC on 11th August 1973; a time when most other English-speaking radio broadcasters had submitted to TV and stopped transmitting such things as drama, live variety, etc.
What a cast! Sir John Gielgud, Alan Bennett, Dorothy Reynolds, Nora Nicholson and Paul Eddington. Only the BBC could assemble such noted actors for a radio production!
Thankfully, even today (2017) the BBC still manages to assemble great casts for their radio plays. Even when the BBC produces a radio version of a TV play or comedy, one finds that virtually all of the original casts are happy to contribute to the radio production. Long may this continue.
To return to the drama itself: I have to say that it's not the best play I've ever heard, and certainly not the best thing to have come from Alan Bennett's pen. Although there's some original material here, I'm surprised that Bennett borrowed so much from other literary sources!
